2 Samuel 23: 5-7

Is it not true my house is with God? For He has established an everlasting covenant with me, ordered and secured in every detail. Will He not bring about my whole salvation and my every desire? But all the wicked are like thorns raked aside; they can never be picked up by my hand. The man who touches them must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear. They will be completely burned up on the spot.

Let us all be encouraged by the last words of David in this day. As followers of Christ, we are a part of God’s everlasting covenant with David, which is ordered and secured in every way. While we live in a day of much insecurity, we can know for certain that God had secured every detail of His plan for us.

We see in this passage that the wicked are raked aside. I’m reminded of the parable Jesus taught of the wheat and the sower in Matthew 13:24-30:

He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.  But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left.  When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared.  The landowner’s slaves came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’

 “‘An enemy did this!’ he told them.

“‘So, do you want us to go and gather them up?’ the slaves asked him.

 “‘No,’ he said. ‘When you gather up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but store the wheat in my barn.’”

The enemy seeks to destroy God’s harvest, but God has another plan for the enemy’s seed. He will let the tares (wicked) grow along with the wheat (God’s people) until the time for harvest comes so that the wheat is not uprooted along with the tares. At harvest time, however, God will pull the obvious tares first. He will bind them and burn them so that all that is left is His beautiful, bountiful harvest, ready for His storehouse.

When we see evil rise among us as we do today, know that such tares are destined for the burn pit. God will allow the wicked to grow to maturity, but they will never partake of His inheritance. Their time will be cut short in order for God to reap His harvest.

We certainly live in a day of both wheat and tares. Pray for revival and a great harvest of souls for God’s kingdom. I believe a world-wide revival is coming, the likes of which we have never before seen! Before that time, however, we are likely to see a great binding and burning. David’s covenant is everlasting, and God’s kingdom will reign forever!

Have a blessed day!

Exodus 33:21-23

The LORD said, “Here is a place near Me. You are to stand on the rock, and when My glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back, but My face will not be seen.”

Moses had asked to see God’s glory. If he were to lead God’s people into the promised land, how would they be distinguished from all the other people of the land without God’s favor as evidence that He was with them? It is, indeed, God’s favor that distinguishes us as His and guides us to success in our journey. It is God’s favor that helps us overcome the obstacles and hardships of life. It is His favor upon our life that speaks to others, leaving them jealous of our privilege with God or longing to know more about Him.

We all long to see God’s glory fulfilled in our lives and to live in His favor. Just as Moses was leading God’s people to a promised land, God’s glory in our life begins with a promise   – a deep longing that only God can meet. As we travel through our own wilderness in route to that fulfilled promise, we can become impatient like Moses. Thankfully, God was not impatient and decided to use Moses’s request as an object lesson.

In asking to see God’s glory, Moses was wanting to know how God was going to fulfill His promise. Moses had been through one difficulty after another in trying to lead an obstinate and complaining people through the wilderness. God was telling him one thing, but he was witnessing another. “Let me see your glory” was another way of saying, “Let me see what You are doing.” God, however, wanted Moses to trust Him. He provided a place near Him where Moses could stand on a rock – a firm and established place. When His glory passed by, He would hide Moses in the crevice of the rock and cover it with His hand. The crevice would be a tight place, which may have been uncomfortable and provided very limited vision. While Moses was cramped in the tight place, God was doing His work behind the scenes. When He had finished, Moses would be able to see where God had been, but he would not be able to see the actual moving of God.

While waiting for our promises to be fulfilled, God may put us in a place near Him, where we can be firm and established in our relationship and in communication with Him. When He is ready to do a work in us or for us, He may put is in a tight place, where we have to trust that He is at work in our life, even though we cannot see what He is doing. When He has finished, He will show us where He has been at work all along. Just as God taught Moses to trust Him, so will He teach us to do the same.

If you are longing for a promise to be fulfilled, stay in a place near God, where you can establish a firm relationship with Him and learn to communicate with Him daily. Expect to find yourself in a tight place, where you can’t see God moving and have limited vision. Know that He is working behind the scenes, and when He is ready, you will see His glory pass by.

Have a blessed day!

Psalm 142:1-3

I cry aloud to the LORD; I plead aloud to the LORD for mercy. I pour out my complaint before Him; I reveal my trouble to Him. Although my spirit is weak within me, You know my way.

Life just gets hard at times, and people or circumstances will disappoint us. Thankfully, we have a God who understands and is willing to hear our complaint and extend mercy. Let us be careful to pour our complaints out to Him with a grateful heart and look to Him to guide us through the difficulty.

Complaining serves no effective purpose unless it changes the outcome or circumstance. On the contrary, it often breeds resentment and a bad attitude if allowed to spread. Consider carefully to whom you complain. If the person has no ability to change the matter, your complaint is only a poor reflection of yourself. A complaint expressed and submitted to God, however, is an effective means of turning over your cares to the One who truly has the ability to resolve your problem. In turn, He can change your heart while you wait on His resolution.

Cast your complaint upon the LORD with thanksgiving, knowing that He loves you and has your best interest in mind. The more you thank Him for what He has already done, the more you will be able to trust Him for what He is doing now that you just can’t yet see. When a complaining heart becomes a thankful heart, miracles can happen!

Have a blessed day!

Nehemiah 4: 7-8

When Sanballat, Tobiah, and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the repair to the walls of Jerusalem was progressing and that the gaps were being closed, they became furious. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw it into confusion.

Imagine what you could accomplish if you never had any resistance to your efforts. If you could start a project and just work on it without any interruptions, you could probably be much more productive and quite possibly much more stress free. Our progress in God’s kingdom is a threat to the enemy, as Nehemiah and the Israelites who rebuilt Jerusalem quickly learned. The neighboring tribes did not want the city to be rebuilt for fear it would flourish and diminish their territory and regional dominance. When efforts to discourage and intimidate the Israelites did not work, the neighboring enemies decided to take more direct efforts to fight the rebuilding process.

God is not the author of confusion. When He gives us a word or instruction to do something, He makes it very clear. He wants us to understand so we can be obedient, and He will bless our efforts. Confusion prevents you from moving forward. If the enemy can’t stop you with subtle means such as discouragement, doubt, fear, intimidation, or any other emotion that makes you feel insecure, he will directly attack your efforts by confusing the process.

We see this every day as we watch the news. When we continue to move forward, despite dire predictions for the future, or question things that are causing chaos to our economy, the media often attempts to redefine our frame of reference or redirect our attention. Lying, misinformation, disinformation, are all tools used to distract us from the truth and to cause confusion. The devil is known as the father of lies, and wherever he works, we can expect lies to be his trademark. Distinguishing the truth from the lie can be difficult, although quite often the lies are so blatant one must be completely asleep not to recognize it. A lie, however, cannot stand the full test of time. Sooner or later, the truth becomes obvious because it has the evidence to sustain it. Knowing the truth will also free us from the confusion of the lie.

Nehemiah did not allow confusion to stop the progress of the wall. He taught us how to fight confusion in verse 9 of this same chapter:

So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard because of them day and night.

The most effective defense against confusion is to keep talking to God and guard against the enemy. By bringing every thought captive and submitting it to the knowledge of Christ, we can keep the communication channel with God clear of confusion and continue in the work He has called us to do. We have the power to choose to listen to the enemy or to disregard him. Resist him, and he will flee. Engage with him and believe his lies, and he will gain victory over you by confusing you. If you are experiencing confusion in any area of your life, the enemy has introduced a lie to you. Begin to bring every thought captive and submit it to what you know to be true about Christ. Pray for clarity, and submit your matter to God. Keep praying and doing what you know is right to do. God will enable you to distinguish the truth from the lie, and you will be free to move forward.

Have a blessed day!

Psalm 50:14-15

Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and say your vows to the Most High. Call on Me in a day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you will honor Me.

v. 23:

Whoever sacrifices a thank offering honors Me, and whoever orders his conduct, I will show him the salvation of God.

Something about the thank offering honors God, and He responds to it. If you are in need of deliverance from a difficult situation today, understanding the thank offering may bring greatly needed insight for approaching God for your rescue. I offer you the following three characteristics of the thank offering for consideration.

1. The thank offering was offered by someone who was already in covenant with God. 

Thank offerings were not sin offerings. Repentance and atonement for sin were not needed. The thank offering recognized that the person was already in a right relationship with God, and the person chose to acknowledge that relationship to approach God in prayer. If we belong to Christ, we are already in a right relationship with the Father, and we can approach His throne of grace with confidence to ask anything.

2. The thank offering was a free will offering. God did not require the thank offering, and it was viewed as a voluntary offering in response to the grace already bestowed upon the person. Thank offerings are our response to God for what He has already done for us.

3. The thank offering was given for deliverance from distress, death, or sickness and followed by a vow to praise God in anticipation of an answer to prayer. When in the midst of difficulty, a thank offering reminds you of what God has already done in your life, and it exercises faith that He will do it again. 

Jesus Christ has already paid the price for our sins. If we are facing difficulty or distress, we must rely upon His sacrifice for us and lean into the relationship with God that it provides by thanking Him for what He has already done for us through Christ. God responds to gratitude, and He will deliver us. Exercise your faith in God today for the miracle you need by thanking Him for what He has already done for you, and pay honor to the One who can do the impossible! 

Have a blessed day!

Joshua 5:13-14

When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached Him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” He replied. “I have now come as commander of the LORD’s army.”

Joshua had a battle before him, and as the successor to Moses, it would be up to him to lead the people into battle to take what God had promised them. The daunting challenge before him must have been overwhelming because God repeatedly told him to be of great courage, and we don’t see Joshua shrinking back from the challenge. As he neared Jericho to observe the land and the obstacles he would have to overcome, he encountered a mighty warrior he did not expect to find.

“Are you for us or for our enemies?” Joshua’s question was certainly valid as he sought to discover whether or not this formidable warrior before him was his friend or foe. This mighty warrior, however, had not come to further Joshua’s cause nor to stop him. He had come to take charge! Jericho would not fall by the Israelite army but by the army of the LORD, and Joshua would lead his men to take possession of the land afterwards.

What battle lies before you that seems impossible? You don’t have to figure it out, strategize, or manipulate to get a win. God already has a battle plan, and He will summons His army to fight for you where you cannot fight for yourself. Simply bow before your Great Commander in worship, and let Him fight that battle for you. He has come to take charge and to lead you to possess the land. He fights the battle; you worship and obey. What comfort it is to know today that we can have great courage because God fights our battles and gives us the land!

Have a blessed day!

Joshua 6:5

When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the city wall will collapse, and the people will advance, each man straight ahead.

God instructed Joshua to take his fighting men, seven priests with trumpets, and the Ark of the Covenant and march around the city one time for six days with a single blast of the trumpets. The seven priests with trumpets went before the Ark of the Covenant, and when the trumpets blew, part of the fighting men went before the priests and the rest created a rear guard behind the Ark. The people were completely silent during this march. Marching around the city in this way was a form of claiming the territory God had promised them. 

On the seventh day, the group marched around the city seven times, and after the seventh march, the priests gave a long blast of the horns. When they heard the prolonged blast, all the people gave a mighty shout. At this point, the wall that separated them from God’s promises collapsed!

A trumpet blast signaled a battle cry. Jericho would have known the Israelites meant business, but their wall had been built to protect them and they trusted in it. History and archaeological finds have proved that the wall around Jericho was so high, strong, and impenetrable that there was no way an army – especially one as small as that of Joshua’s – could have torn through it to take over the city. Merely marching around the city and blowing trumpets were no threat to the great wall – or so they must have thought. 

When the Israelites gave the great shout, however, the wall collapsed – proof that God was with them in claiming their territory! They never had to tear at one brick, administer one blow, or attempt to knock down anything. They simply advanced – moved forward – to take their land.

What great wall is standing between you and God’s promises today? Stop concentrating on how to tear down the wall, and make plans to move forward in His promises. Claim your territory and know that when the time is right, the wall will fall, and you will be able to storm into the land to possess all God has for you. Take your place, get into position, and move forward!

Have a blessed day!

Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will not leave you or forsake you.

Throughout Scripture, we find the solid, assuring promise that God is with us, and He will never leave us. Jesus reiterated it in Matthew 28:20, and we find it again in Hebrews 13:5. As a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives in us, and God has promised to never leave us or forsake us in our earthly journey. But, do we really understand just how great that promise is or what it really means?

Psalm 114: 3-4

The sea looked and fled; the Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. 

These verses describe what happened when God’s people fled Egypt (sin) and approached the Red Sea. The sea looked and fled. After they spent 40 years circling the wilderness and finally had the faith to enter the Promised Land, the Jordan River turned back so they could cross over on dry ground. When God is with us, mountains move in response to His presence.

Psalm 114:7-8

Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. 

When God’s presence is with you, miracles happen! Whatever elements stand in the way of you and your God-given purpose flee and fold at the presence of the Almighty. God clears the way for your victory as you step into His promises. 

What miracle do you need today? What mountain or great sea stands between you and your promise?  His presence will clear the way. Don’t be afraid to move forward. Be strong and courageous, for it is the LORD, your God who goes with you!

Have a blessed day!

Joshua 4:20-24

Then Joshua set up in Gilgal the 12 stones they had taken from the Jordan, and he said to the Israelites, “When your children ask their fathers in the future, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’ you should tell your children, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea which He dried up before us until we had crossed over. This is so that all the people of the earth may know that the LORD’s hand is mighty, and so that you may always fear the LORD your God.'”

Before the Israelites who had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years could enter the Promised Land, God had to work some miracles. He parted the Red Sea so they could flee Egypt and enter the wilderness, and He dried up the waters of the Jordan for them to exit the wilderness and make entrance into the land they were to take. On each side of their wilderness experience, they experienced a miracle where God moved the water on their behalf and allowed them to walk across on dry ground. 

Upon exiting the wilderness, God instructed Joshua to take 12 stones and set them up as a memorial so future generations would know the mighty work God did to deliver His people. These 12 stones were a testimony to the grace and the power of God. They served as evidence that God was with His people and actively working on their behalf. If He intervened for them then, He could intervene for them in the future. He can intervene for us now. 

A testimony serves as evidence to the character and acts of a person or to the factual occurrence of an event. A true testimony is not an opinion but the witness of a fact. 2 Corinthians 13:1 repeats a part of the law given by Moses that out of the mouths of two or three witnesses shall a matter be established. They were not to take an accusation alone as truth but were to look for testimonies or evidence which could corroborate that truth. These 12 stones that came from the bottom of the Jordan River were hard core evidence that God had worked a miracle for His people. When children of future generations asked about the stones, the people were to give testimony to the power of God in what He did to deliver them. 

Where has God worked miracles for you, and is there evidence to support it? Your testimony to His grace and power is the proof this generation needs to believe there is a God and that He really does love His people and still works miracles. Revelation 12:11 tells us that God’s people overcome the evil one – the Anti-Christ – by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Isaiah 43:10 assures us that we are God’s witnesses and His chosen servant to know and believe and understand that He alone is God. As His witnesses, we will see Him move and act, doing things we could never accomplish on our own. We will have testimonies of miracles, and we are not to be quiet about them.

Do you need a miracle today? Has someone experienced the kind of miracle you need? If so, then that testimony is hope that God will act in the same way again for you. Ask Him to do the same thing for you. God is no respecter of persons, and what He did for one, He can do again for another. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The power of the personal testimony is a bridge to hope and faith for someone who needs the same miracle. Look for a bridge if you need a miracle; build one for someone else who needs one. 

Have a blessed day!

Psalm 32:7

You are my hiding place; You protect me from trouble. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. 

                                                                                                                             Selah

Something wonderful happens when we make God our hiding place. Not only can we drown the noise of the world and pour our heart out to Him, we can begin to truly hear the voice of God speaking to us and directing us. He uses our time of hiding and isolation to infuse hope, joy, and the promise of deliverance to us as He begins to do a work in us that will heal and empower us for a new thing He wants to accomplish through us.

When we find “Selah” at the end of a passage, it indicates a pause, which may offer a time of reflection or signal a response. In this passage, we have a response from God in verse 8:

I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with My eye on you, I will give counsel.

While God is certainly our refuge and a very present help in times of trouble, He is also our counselor, advisor, and mentor in moving forward and fulfilling the destiny for which He designed us. When He is our hiding place, we may be invisible to the world, but God keeps His eye on us as He gives us counsel. He sees us. He knows us completely. He wants the very best for us, and He will tell us how to get there.

Make God your hiding place today, and hold nothing back from Him. Pause with a Selah of praise, and wait for Him to speak to you. You will be amazed how He will respond as you listen and continue to commune with Him daily. 

Have a blessed day!